The Dragonlance Academy
by Dalamar the Dark
Summary: A crazy story about Dragonlance, ordinary people from Earth, and why you always want to have Ad blocker on. (With permission from Camilla Sandman, just in case it gets too much like hers)
1. Ad Blocker

It was summer in New York, where Ariel Nellen lived. Ariel happened to be extremely bored. Camp didn't start for another two weeks, all her friends were away (the ultimate terror for a 15-year-old) and she couldn't go outside because it was 98 degrees and humid. For the past week, since school had ended, Ariel had retreated to her computer for comfort. She was spending most of her waking time eating and going on fanfiction.net. Ariel's mother, however, abhorred the site, so she was careful to turn back to summer reading books when her mother was near.  
  
Ariel's current argument with her mother was over her room. The walls were yellow and the bed was blue and yellow. There was almost no decoration at all. Ariel wanted to get special wallpaper depicting dragons, unicorns, pegasi and other magical creatures. She also wanted a bed with an enormous dragon on it. Her mother, however, insisted that Ariel's unnatural obsession with magic would not spill over onto her room.  
  
"Ariel, what are you doing?" Her mother's shout penetrated the loud music Ariel was blasting.  
  
Ariel quickly exited fanfiction.net and grabbed her required reading book, Catch 22. Although she liked it, she would have much rather been reading her new copy of Dragons of a Vanished Moon. "Homework, Mom!" she yelled back. Once she finished the chapter she was reading, Ariel turned back to the computer. Opening Fanfiction again, she was bombarded by popup ads. "I have to get Ad blocker going again," she muttered. Closing all the ads, she noticed one. It said:  
  
Johns Hopkins University has added a NEW online tutorial! Click "join now" for a FREE trial of the new fantasy tutorial! Learn about ALL kinds of fantasy, specializing in the Dungeons and Dragons collection, which includes the best-selling DRAGONLANCE SAGA!!!  
  
Ariel sighed, glaring at the computer. Definitely time to run Ad Blocker. She was about to exit the ad when she noticed the words were fading and in their place was a picture of a dragon. It was surrounded by silver mist. The mist expanded to fill the screen, and then slowly filtered into Ariel's room. The fuzzy outline of a dragon appeared in the mist in front of Ariel. "Are you sure you want to do this?" it said, sounding like the whisper of the wind.  
  
Ariel was entranced. Whether or not this was magic, her mind insisted it was; and magic was one of the only components of her life that had always been missing, or so she had felt.  
  
"Not missing," breathed the dragon. "You just didn't see it. We tried everything, but you were too blind. Magic is normally not found through an ad on fanfiction.net."  
  
Ariel stared. "How?"  
  
"You will learn that soon. Will you come?"  
  
The outline of the dragon was becoming fainter. Soon, only the voice would remain, Ariel knew, and then even that would vanish.  
  
"I will come," she said, and the mist closed around her, and she was falling.  
  
I know it's bad. Reviews are great - constructive criticism is best!! I re- uploaded this chapter for the first time (I expect to do it many times over in the future). By the way, Johns Hopkins University does run online programs for literature and math. I didn't completely make that up.  
  
~*~Alexa 


	2. Of Aspirin, Roomates and SpringFoot Dogs

CHAPTER 2 "Aspirin," Ariel mumbled as she woke. "Lots and lots of aspirin."  
  
"I fear she is delirious," a voice said. "What is 'aspirin'?"  
  
"One of their medicines," another voice said disdainfully. The first voice, which was female, replied, "I'll work on her, of course, but first I have to work on you. Whatever possessed you to go riding on an obstacle course in the rain?" As Ariel's vision cleared, she could see the second speaker - a man - shrugging. "Star needed the exercise. And I didn't mean to break my arm."  
  
The first voice sighed. "Maybe not, but it is your fault you jumped off the horse to get a bunny." The man shrugged again. "It needed help. And I slipped on the rock, that's all. I did get the rabbit, though. He's in my room. Go ahead and work on her, Lana. The sooner she's out of here, the better."  
  
The first speaker - Lana - walked over to Ariel and placed a hand on the girl's forehead. Ariel fell asleep.  
  
.and woke up with a start, remembering all that had commenced. Lana hurried over to Ariel. "What's wrong?" The lady asked. "Where am I?" Ariel queried, panicked.  
  
"She seems upset." A green . thing . hovered in the air in front of Ariel. The dragon dropped papers and a pen in the girl's lap. "Fill these out and give them to me," He said. "The Master needs them. When you are done, you can go to your dorm. There's food there. We need the bed for some new arrivals." Ariel realized she was indeed in a bed, fully dressed in jeans and t-shirt. Looking from side to side, she saw endless rows of other beds, each one containing a girl or boy similar to Ariel's age. Ariel also realized with shock that the aching from her fall (though where she fell, she didn't know) was gone.  
  
"The forms," the little dragon said impatiently. It was only about eight inches long and, with its wings spread, about a foot and a half wide. Ariel nodded and looked at the forms filling out normal things such as her name, address, phone number, age, grade, classes enrolled in, email, and then stranger things, such as her pets, favorite Dragonlance character, number of Dragonlance books read, favorite color, and other unusual questions. Ariel answered everything and handed the forms back to the little dragon. It zoomed out a window. Then Ariel realized it was not a window, but a round little portal into the next room for the dragons to go through.  
  
Lana handed Ariel a piece of paper about her dormitory. Opening it up as Lana shooed her out of bed, Ariel saw that it contained directions to her dorm, schedules (meal times, wake-up and lights-out times, etc.), and much else. She noted that in about three hours there was an assembly in the Courtyard (with, of course, directions included).  
  
Following the directions to her dormitory, Ariel opened the door and saw another girl already there, unpacking her things. "Hi, I'm Lily," the girl said, brushing blond hair back from her face and shaking hands with Ariel. Ariel introduced herself and looked around the room. "I took this bed, is that OK? We have our own bathroom, by the way." Ariel nodded and saw her two suitcases at the foot of her bed, packed full. "How did these get here?" Ariel wondered aloud.  
  
"Oh, mine came too," Lily said. "I just started unpacking. Are you a Dragonlance fan?" Ariel grinned and Lily smiled back. "My favorite's Tanis," Lily chattered on. "How about you?"  
  
Ariel began to unpack her things, putting them in the enormous closet. "Dalamar, I guess. I always like the evil guys." Lily gasped. "Even the Dark Knights? Look what they did to my poor Tanis!" Ariel smiled. "Well, at least my favorite isn't dead," she teased. Lily glared, absently lifting a cage out from under her multiple duffels, suitcases, and much else. "How'd he get here? You're supposed to be at home!" She scolded the whatever-it-was inside the cage.  
  
"What is he?" Ariel stared at the cage. "My dog had a littler of puppies," Ariel said. "My mom said to give them away, and he was the last one. You want him?" Ariel set the cage on the floor and opened the door. Out tumbled a mop - oh, wait, Ariel remembered. Mops couldn't walk.  
  
"He looks like a mop, but he's to adorable to resist. Sure, I'll take him - but you have to give me some lessons. I've never had a pet before." Ariel had finished unpacking. She decided to take out a fresh pair of nicer jeans and a real shirt for the assembly.  
  
Lily laughed. "He can be the dorm mascot. Did you know we have an RA?" Ariel made her bed with the new sheets her mother had bought for camp, which had appeared with the suitcases. "RA.oh yeah, that means Resident Advisor, right?" Lily nodded. "He lives down the hall."  
  
There was a knock on the door. "That's probably him," Lily said, and Ariel nodded. After placing her bear on the bed, Ariel went to answer the door. Looking out, however, she saw no one there. Then she heard a cheery "Good afternoon!" and looked down.  
  
A little orange dragon stood in front of the door. It was roughly the same size as the green one in the hospital wing, and it was smiling. "Um, hi," Ariel said, and invited the dragon to come in. It zipped past and settled on the ground inside. "Hello," it said to the girls. "I am Revven, your RA. Who's this?" He nodded to the dog. "He's Ariel's," Lily said hastily. "I gave him to her." Revven nodded sagely, although he was somewhat distracted by the dog running up to him and sniffing him.  
  
The dog began to jump up and down. However, he apparently had built-in springs in his feet, because he started to bounce higher and higher and go all the way around the room. The girls tried to catch him, but he seemed to have the remarkable ability to shift direction in midair. Finally he hit the ceiling and plummeted to the ground, unconscious.  
  
"Is he dead?" Lily whispered.  
  
"Just knocked out," Revven replied. "It won't be hard to fix."  
  
Revven touched the unconscious puppy and its eyes blinked open. The puppy then rolled over and began to sleep.  
  
"Um, Revven, if you don't mind me asking . are there any orange dragons in Dragonlance?"  
  
Smiling, Revven shook his head. "No. It was the Master's idea."  
  
"Who?" Lily was looking through her clothes for a good outfit to wear to the assembly.  
  
"The Master. You will meet him soon, though. The assembly is in one and a half hours. A group from this floor - the second - will meet at the main doors you came through in an hour to go to the Courtyard. If you feel the need to leave earlier, use the directions we gave you. The same goes for being late. However, if you are late for the actual assembly, I will have the Master use you as an example of his death threats. I'm sure everyone will appreciate it." With a last smile, he flew out, closing the door behind him (Ariel chose not to question how he managed to close the door while going at forty miles per hour).  
  
The girls stared.  
  
The next one will be better, I promise! The end is weird because I had to split up a chapter, it was waaaaaaaay too long.  
  
To answer Shade Burrfoot's question: Raistlin and Tas, of course, will be in it. Most likely they will be in chapter 4 or possibly 5, when the fun begins. (I have already written 3, and it is quite long enough already.)  
  
Thanks for all reviews! As always: Reviews are great, reviews with constructive criticism are best.  
  
Thank you to my sister also for the great ideas, as she has way too many names by now I will simply say "Thank you Taru!"  
  
~*~Alexa 


	3. Of an Author with an Addiction to Chocol...

CHAPTER 3 "Wow," Lily said after the departure of Revven.  
  
"Yeah. What are you wearing?" Ariel went over to Lily.  
  
The girls spent the next twenty minutes trading clothes and working out outfits for the assembly ("You can't wear that!" Lily had exclaimed when she saw Ariel's jeans). Although Lily was a year younger, they were the same size. This was better for Ariel than Lily, as Lily had a large amount of clothing while Ariel had little but jeans, shirts and t-shirts.  
  
When Ariel had opened the closet after putting her things away, she noted that the hole in one of her jeans had been mended, the tear on her shirt fixed. After having a little one-sided chat with the closet, she gave it designs for a basic dress to wear. She put the designs on the closet floor, closed the door, and opened it again a minute later. The dress hung there, just as Ariel had imagined it. She took out the dress, admiring it as Lily came over to see. It was dark red and ended at the knees. It was shaped like a strapless dress, but there were spaghetti straps also made of dark red material. It was narrow and it looked beautiful on Ariel. (Lily said it went well with Ariel's dark hair and eyes, but since Ariel rarely paid any attention to her eyes except to put in contacts lenses, and only noticed her hair when doing a quick, neat ponytail every morning.)  
  
Then, of course, both realized they had forty minutes or so to get ready and panicked. By the time they had finished their clothes, hair, jewelry, purses, and makeup, they only had five minutes to walk to the big doors. Lily and Ariel joined the crowd moving toward the doors. Ariel noticed that there were quite a few boys. Thankfully the bathrooms were in the dorms.  
  
A bronze dragon waited for them at the doors. When the flood of people arrived, it nodded to them and buzzed off, going at a moderate pace for once.  
  
After following the dragon for about ten minutes and going around more twists and turns than Ariel could remember, they emerged in an open, beautiful yard. There were flowers planted all over - although none of the students could recognize what flowers. There were open, beautiful roses, which were streaked blue and purple. Large trees with chocolate bars hanging off them abounded, as well as a bush which seemed to have truffles growing. There was also a large, beautiful lake filled with dark chocolate fudge. The grass that grew next to the path was green, but it was made of sugar. Beautiful little wildflowers grew in the grass, which were flavored according to the color (grape, raspberry, strawberry, orange, etc.), and the dandelions tasted like lemon. The path the students were on was wide and made of stone, and it wound around everything previously mentioned.  
  
"Go ahead and eat!" called the dragon from ahead. Ariel cautiously reached out to a truffle bush and pulled off an large truffle perhaps two inches wide. Nibbling on it, she found it to be champagne. When she finished that, she noticed some oddly shaped mushrooms. Picking one, she found that the bottom stem was solid dark chocolate, and the enormous, tall cap was soufflé.  
  
Lily picked a strawberry flower and ate it. "Wow, these are great, Ariel!" she cried. Ariel, however, was rather distracted. Noticing an oddly round dark brown rock cut into sections, she grabbed a piece as she went past. Eating it, she decided it was a layer cake, with frozen whipped cream and chocolate.  
  
Looking up, Ariel saw that the sky was turning gray. Wondering it was going to rain, she turned to warn Lily. She had no time to do so, because at that moment it began to hail. Expecting to be hit by ice, Ariel was instead bombarded by chocolate chips.  
  
After a few minutes, Ariel simply tilted back her head and let the chips come to her. None of the chips landed on the students unless the students wanted them to. However, drifts of chocolate chips were accumulating on either side of the students. Looking toward the front of the line to see how the dragon was faring, she saw, not a dragon, but two female elves.  
  
"I guess they're substitutes," Lily said to Ariel. "I don't think the dragon would do well in the hail." Ariel nodded absently, studying the elves. One was taller than the other. The smaller one was wearing a black robe hemmed in golden ribbon. Her long black hair was loose, and she had pale skin. Both elves were very thin. Lily and Ariel wormed their way toward the front of the column, the chocolate forgotten. Finally they got to be perhaps six feet behind the elves. When the elf with black hair turned to look at the students, Ariel saw that she had beautiful, intelligent green eyes.  
  
It would have been hard for the other elf to look more different. She wore a black robe as well, but it was hemmed in silver. Long, fine silver hair cascaded down her back. She had dark tan skin and very dark eyes. She was also taller than her companion.  
  
The elves reached a podium with many seats in front of it. The chocolate hail stopped abruptly. Ariel sat, as did the others, noticing as she did so that the elves continued to the podium and sat in chairs behind the lectern.  
  
The chairs behind the lectern filled up quickly. Ariel assumed they were for the staff. The chairs were up against a wall, and many staff members were coming out of a door in the wall. Eventually all the staff and students settled down, and waited for whoever would speak to appear.  
  
Someone dressed in a black, hooded robe walked toward the lectern, flanked by the two elves who had led the students. Although the female elves had stood up from the front row, Ariel could not see where the other figure had come from. Whoever it was, they stepped up to the lectern, while the elven women walked on either side of the lectern.  
  
"Welcome," the person at the lectern said, pushing the hood back. Ariel stared. The face seemed vaguely familiar. The person was an elf. Ariel felt she should know him, but she could not tell who he was.  
  
"I am Dalamar," he said, and Ariel wondered no longer, because she knew where the voice was from. It was the man from the hospital wing.Dalamar.  
  
"This is the Dragonlance Academy. You are here to learn more about Dragonlance. If you did not read many of the books, or only read the parts with your favorite character in, the problem will soon be corrected." Dalamar gave the students a glare that said, "I really don't care what you think and if you disagree, you will be an example of what happens to the unfortunate students who cross me."  
  
"You are taking mandatory classes. Skip or be late, and I will make you write a one thousand page essay on a completely random subject - or worse." Ariel shuddered. "By the way, this is Kiara" - Dalamar indicated the smaller elf with black hair - "And this is Liara. They are not twins. If you call them twins, very bad things will happen. They will both be teaching a course this year. The other staff members you will recognize, or you will if you wish to keep your health. Tika does not particularly like being addressed as Linsha, nor does Raistlin like being called Palin. Similarly, do not mistake Sturm for Steel or the other way around. Each teacher has their unique mode of torture to give you, should you make any of these mistakes. Any questions?"  
  
The Courtyard was oppressively silent.  
  
"Very good. Now that the hail has stopped, Zent can lead you back to your dorms. It is nearly dinnertime. When you get back, you will have forty- five minutes to get ready for dinner, as we serve it regularly at seven. Do not be late. I suggest you get a good night's sleep. Your classes start in two days, and tomorrow will be hectic, despite the absence of academics. Have a good evening. Kiara."  
  
Kiara and Liara silently followed Dalamar out the staff door. The other staff left, while the bronze dragon - Zent - flew out from under a chair to lead the students back to the dormitories.  
  
Ariel stood for a moment, staring at the now empty lectern. She wondered, not for the last time, how all this had happened.  
  
With a last look at the place where Dalamar had so recently stood, Ariel turned with a sigh and joined the students going back to the dorms.  
  
Thanks for reviews! I maintain my policy - reviews are great, criticism is super.  
  
To answer AngelDragonStar: The DragonLance characters will mostly be teachers. I will add in a few teachers of my own as well. Although that is a good idea, maybe I will mix in some characters with the normal students!  
  
Thanks also to Taru, who has supplied exquisitely unique ideas as usual to improve my stories. The Martians kick ass!  
  
~*~Alexa 


	4. Of Those Who Are Not Twins

CHAPTER 4 Ariel was floating in dreams. She was playing cards with Dalamar. She was winning, too. In the dream, she leaned back in her chair, putting the card against her chest so the edges poked her.  
  
.and kept on poking. Ariel opened her eyes, jumping as she saw a disgustingly cheery dragon sitting on her. Revven took to the air just before Ariel sat up with a start. Lily, in the bed next to her, rubbed her eyes and rolled over.  
  
"Wake up!" Revven said, far too cheerful for any sane person to be this early in the morning. "It's six o'clock in the morning. Breakfast is at six forty-five every morning. You do not want to be late. Get dressed, but you will not need anything with you yet. Good morning!" The dragon flew out the door, which slammed shut. Ariel suspected Revven was flying down the hall to wake other nearby unfortunates.  
  
"Early . tired . cooped up with insane dragon . I haven't gotten up this early since I was eleven." Lily moaned and got out of bed. "Ariel? Are you awake?"  
  
"Unfortunately, yes." Ariel blearily stood up and headed for the bathroom while Lily studied her clothes. Ariel hastily put in her contact lenses, went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and stumbled back out into the room to pull on jeans and a shirt. About forty minutes later, the two girls were relatively organized and were walking out the door to join the others going to breakfast. The cafeteria was near the dorms, so there was no dragon to guide them.  
  
Ariel looked at the food served for breakfast, helping herself to a variety of foods such as a small portion of pancakes, waffles, eggs, toast, French toast, muffins, croissants, and much else. Each came in tiny servings, as the students were apparently expected to try everything.  
  
Ariel sat down at a table next to Lily. Only then did she notice a small sign on the table that said "Kiara and Liara's Table." (Ariel had been careful to address them individually in her mind. She did not want to accidentally call them twins and discover the interesting punishments Dalamar had mentioned.)  
  
Looking up, Ariel saw a tall, silver-haired person pushing through the crowded lines toward their table. That would be Liara, then, Ariel thought. But where was Kiara? Just then she caught a glimpse of a shorter, black-haired elf following Liara. Assuming that actually was Kiara, the poor elf looked like she was sleepwalking. Kiara held a large plate piled with chocolate chip pancakes and an amazing amount of other sugary foods. Liara, on the other hand, had a few much smaller chocolate chip pancakes and a bowl of fruit salad.  
  
The two arrived at the table and sat down. "Good morning!" said Liara cheerfully. "No, very bad morning," Kiara said under her breath. Ariel's earlier suspicions were correct - the elf really did look asleep.  
  
Lily blinked. "Are you actually going to eat that much sugar at seven in the morning?" she asked incredulously. Kiara glared. "Yes, actually, I am." She lifted a large pitcher of hot chocolate labeled "Kiara's Mix: Touch and Die." Liara shook her head. "I thought I told you to take that stupid label off." "You did," said Kiara, grinning. "I just didn't listen."  
  
"No kidding," Liara replied, lifting her own hot chocolate pitcher (which was painted blue with fluffy clouds on it, and had 'Liara' written on it in script) and pouring some into a mug. (Kiara was drinking hers out of the pitcher.)  
  
"It's better than that stupid fluffy bunny pitcher thingy of yours," said Kiara, stuffing a whole pancake in her mouth.  
  
"At least mine isn't two-thirds sugar and one-third chocolate."  
  
Kiara glared. "I like sugar. Sugar is good for you. Good night," she said, closing her eyes and promptly falling asleep on her miraculously empty breakfast tray (Liara moved the plate before Kiara got chocolate smeared all over her face).  
  
"Hi, I'm Ariel," said Ariel to Liara. Liara smiled and said, "I am Liara. The sleeping one is Kiara." Ariel glanced at the comatose not-twin. She was not Liara's twin, Ariel reminded herself again.  
  
"I'm Lily," said Lily. Liara nodded and said hello.  
  
"Um, does she do that every morning?" asked Ariel, still looking at Kiara.  
  
"Pretty much, yes. Duck," Liara warned.  
  
Ariel instinctively ducked down as something small, silver, and very fast zipped by and landed on Liara's shoulder. "Hello, Lanth," Liara said to the small silver dragon. "I saved you some fruit. Here's your hot chocolate," she added, pouring some hot chocolate in a shallow bowl for the dragon, who energetically attacked his meal.  
  
"Lily, watch out!" Liara cried suddenly. Lily shrank down in her seat as a gold blur flashed past, executing several unnecessary loops in the air before landing in front of Kiara.  
  
"That's Kanth," Liara explained. Kanth flicked his tail in greeting and hopped up onto the rim of Kiara's enormous chocolate pitcher. Disappointed to find it empty, he decided instead to liberate all sugar at the table from its owners. Apparently the little dragon was as addicted to sugar as Kiara.  
  
Finishing her breakfast, Ariel looked up as someone cleared their throat at the front of the cafeteria. It was Dalamar again.  
  
"Good morning," he said. "Today you will choose your courses. The teachers at your table will give you a packet with a sheet for every course available. You must choose five. You have until 11:30 to choose what courses. At that time, a collection bin will be placed at the double doors leading out of your floor. You will put the six sheets from the packet of the courses you want to take, properly filled in. You cannot change them, so choose wisely. If you fill them out improperly, you will redo them in my office. After that, you will have lunch at noon here, and then you will get prepared for your courses. There is a bookstore nearby. Your course books are there. You do not have to pay for anything; the person there will give you what you need. The directions there are in the packet you got yesterday. You can also ask your Resident Advisor how to get there. Good morning," he said again, and walked to the door.  
  
Ariel got her packet from Liara (Kiara had woken up and was feeding Kanth handfuls of sugar). Then she and Lily returned to the dorms to begin studying the packet of courses.  
  
~*~-~*~  
  
Reviews are cool . really cool . (((  
  
Thank you, O goddess of many names. I know you will understand that I must climb up my path to the mountaintop rather than.up yours.  
  
~*~Alexa 


	5. Of Textbooks, Classes, and Dragons

CHAPTER 5 "Mmm. 'Why The Dragonlance Characters Are Not Your Lust Objects' . 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series' . no duh. Lily, got anything?" Ariel flipped another page. "I had no idea there were this many courses," she muttered.  
  
"Nah. What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Well, my list has 'Why The Dragonlance Characters Are Not Your Lust Objects', 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series', 'Magic: Do You Have It?', 'The Fighters of Dragonlance: How They Did It', and 'Dragons: All You Need To Know (and a lot you don't)'. That sounds pretty good to me, right?"  
  
Lily nodded. "Ooh! Here's a cool one. 'Defeating the Dark'. Maybe Tanis will be the teacher? Okay, that's it. I'm in some of your courses, too. Let's turn these in - it's eleven fifteen already."  
  
Ariel took her filled-out forms and dropped them off in the collection bin with Lily. They then stopped for lunch. Keeping her directions close at hand in her purse, the Ariel managed to navigate their way to the bookstore with Lily.  
  
"Good morning," said the bookstore person. "I am Lemuel. I'm also the librarian here. Now, what courses do you have?..." Ariel handed the man her list and curiously looked at the things behind the desk. They were weird. She got a glimpse of a book called "Chop Off That Head: Where To Strike?".  
  
"Here," said Lemuel. "I will have your books and supplies delivered, miss." Lemuel looked down at the sheet. ".Ariel."  
  
"Thanks!" said Ariel, surprised at the man's kindness. The librarian in her area had been truly evil, always insisting that Ariel was trying to steal books when she handed them in a day late.  
  
Lemuel turned to Lily after making arrangements with a little purple dragon for Ariel's books to be moved. "Normally I can't do this, when everyone is crowded in here," he said with a smile, "but it's not busy so I don't think Mevva will mind. Go ahead and follow her, I'll get your friend her books quickly. Veni will get them - he's the other one who helps me here. Go on."  
  
Ariel thanked the librarian and followed the purple dragon, who was carefully levitating the books to float through the air in front of them. "You'll be learning to do this, too, if you'll be taking magic," remarked the little purple dragon. Ariel nodded. "Where do you guys live?" she asked, having wondered that last night.  
  
"You'll find we aren't allowed to tell," Mevva said cheerfully. "We wouldn't mind that much - it always is exciting when people try to break in - but the Master was truly afraid some of the more . handsome . characters in Dragonlance might be less happy." Ariel nodded vehemently. "If you stay for second session, some can stay in the staff section, though," she said slyly. "We get the biggest rush of people then, anyway. We need all the dorms, you see, and the Master says we can't expand, so we let the best students stay with us. Gives you something to work for, doesn't it?"  
  
The two reached Ariel's room. "Thanks, Mevva!" Ariel said. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Mevva let the books gently sink to the floor. "Well, no."  
  
Ariel, however, was digging through her personal things in her drawers. She finally pulled out a 20-pack of gum. "Do you like gum?"  
  
"GUM!!!!!!!" squeaked Mevva. Grinning, Ariel handed the pack to Mevva, making a private note to ask the useful closet to make her more. It seemed to be offended by anything empty in it. Ariel had accidentally left one of her favorite pens with a recently empty cartridge in the closet. When she took it out, the cartridge was not only full, but there was a pack of extra ink cartridges next to it.  
  
Mevva flew to a corner of the room as Lily, Veni, and Lily's books entered the room. Upon seeing Mevva's gum, Veni (who was yellow), instantly exclaimed, "GUM!!!!!"  
  
Lily looked at Ariel, unsure. Ariel shrugged and found a Ziploc full of assorted candy wrappers. Grinning, she put the Ziploc in the closet. Lily gave Veni a pack of gum. The two flew out, arguing over what brand of gum was best for the teeth.  
  
"Lily, look at what the closet does!" said Ariel excitedly. "I put an empty pen in it, and it came out with extra cartridges! And the dress - and the gum." Excited, Lily went over to Ariel and exclaimed over the closet.  
  
"It doesn't work with mine," Lily said, disappointed. Ariel looked at her watch. "We'd better start reading." She flopped on her made bed with the books and her laptop. The laptop had been given to her by her grandparents, who stoutly believed that every child should be exposed to technology in every way possible. Ariel didn't object.  
  
Ariel's own contribution to the laptop had been a drawing on the front. It was done in a "paint-pen", which was a pen that, instead of having ink in the cartridge, has paint, typically silver or gold. Ariel had outlined a silver dragon on the top, and she was glad she had done so. The dragon seemed to smile at her-  
  
-And suddenly there was a real dragon sitting on her laptop. Lily gasped, and Ariel reached out to touch the little copper dragon. The dragon tapped her finger gently with its nose, and then said, "Miss Kara, that's our administrator, she wants to see you. Coming? Good," the dragon said without waiting for an answer. The room blurred around Ariel, and suddenly she was standing in a stone corridor. Opening a door, the dragon beckoned her in. Ariel went.  
  
A middle-aged woman sat at a desk. The room was stone, as was the floor. The room was bare except for the plain desk and the two chairs, one of which the lady was sitting in. It was covered with papers. The single light in the ceiling shone brightly. The woman's brown hair was pulled into a bun, and she wore glasses. She finished writing something on a paper before looking up at Ariel and gesturing for Ariel to sit in the chair.  
  
"I am Miss Kara," she said calmly. "The first thing I would like to speak with you about is the dragons. Do not feed them gum. It is unwise. It makes them . out of sorts. Please refrain from doing so in the future. Understood?" Ariel nodded.  
  
"Good. Secondly, I advise you not to feed Kanth, the Lady Kiara's gold dragon, sugar. It has an even worse effect on him than gum does on the other dragons. The only dragon which is not an addict to any particular sugar source is Lanth. He resides, when not with Liara, in the Courtyard. The chocolate there was his idea. Interfere with his garden in any way, and you will be sorry. Very sorry. Here is your list of rules." She handed Ariel a large packet and nodded to the copper dragon to take her back to her room. "Oh, one more thing. When you enter the Courtyard, beware the corner on your left. Lanth gave it to Kanth. It is his rock cave."  
  
Ariel stared. "Rock?"  
  
Miss Kara nodded. "It's made entirely of rock candy."  
  
This chapter amuses me.  
  
Please review!! If you have any comments, that includes grammar and spelling, PLEASE tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
To The Golden Dragon: EVIL PLATYPI!  
  
~*~Alexa 


	6. Of Classes, Elves, and Platypi

CHAPTER 6  
  
More or less utterly terrified, Ariel Nellen walked into her first class, which she had decided to mentally refer to as "the Dragon class" (the real title was way too long). The classroom was like a normal one back on Earth, but considerably bigger. Ariel sat at a desk at the center of the front row. She liked having a clear view of a teacher. Also, if the teacher was small (such as a dragon), she wanted to be in a place to see it, not just see a blob of color, as one would from the back of the classroom.  
  
A girl sat down next to Ariel. Ariel studied the stranger. She had black hair and brown skin. Ariel smiled and said "Hi, I'm Ariel." The girl grinned and nodded. "I'm Alicia." Idly chatting, the two got their things ready. Ariel had her textbook, a binder, a notebook, pens, and pencils, as well as her precious laptop.  
  
The students slowly filed in. Every seat filled. The classroom was still for about five minutes.  
  
The door opened. Two people walked in. One wore jeans and a T-shirt; the other wore a long, beautiful black skirt and a deep red blouse. Both were followed by dragons. One of the dragons was silver, the other was gold.  
  
Liara and Kiara walked up to the teacher's desk and sat (Ariel realized that there were two chairs). The dragons landed on the desk.  
  
"I am Liara," Liara said, "That's Lady Liara to you. This is Kiara. She is not my twin. We are teaching the course 'Dragons: All You Need To Know (and a lot you don't)'. For your information, those of you who are also taking 'Magic: Do You Have It?' should pay even more attention than the others. We have a surprise planned for you."  
  
Both of the women grinned evilly, as did the dragons.  
  
"Moving on," Kiara said. "We're here to teach you about dragons. Kanth and Lanth here are only here because they have decided to help educate you and provide an example. Well, we did bribe Kanth with sugar, but I think he would have done it anyway."  
  
"Kiara," Liara said warningly. "This is Kanth," she indicated the gold dragon, "and this is my dragon, Lanth. He's not really mine, he just likes me, I guess. Now, let's begin. Those of you that have laptops, take them out. You will need notes." She paused as the students with laptops turned them on and those without computers took out notebooks and binders.  
  
"Dragons are immortal," said Kiara. "They can become less spry over time, though. After a very long time - several millennia, at least - some dragons become old. Their strength runs out more easily; they are not as powerful as the young ones, even when rested. They only really die when killed. If you ever kill a dragon, the four of us will hunt you down and make you immortal. Then we will give you to our evil platypi.  
  
(Please note: evil platypi copyright The Golden Dragon)  
  
"Dragons lay eggs. These take several hundreds of years to hatch. We have some here that are a couple hundred years old already. They will probably hatch this year. Do not attempt to tamper with the eggs. They are guarded by the platypi. They need meat to survive. If for some absurd reason one of you comes to bond with a dragon, do not attempt to make it live on vegetables. Dragons much prefer fingers to vegetables, so it's not very safe. The platypi, also, are carnivorous. Platypi have photographic memory and enjoy pursuing people to kill them and use Earth recipes on them. The platypi enjoy revolutionary culinary experiments involving unique ingredients."  
  
The class turned rather green.  
  
"She's just joking," Liara said. "The platypi, though, are notoriously evil. You had to set one on fire the other day, didn't you, Lanth? Poor you." She stroked his head."  
  
"Poor platypi!" someone blurted. Kiara looked at a list on the desk with a rather nasty grin. "You would be Brooke. Our list says you pretend to be evil, have written 83 Mary Sues with you and Raistlin. You pride yourself on being the only person who truly deserves the Dragonlance books. Hmm."  
  
Brooke turned bright red.  
  
"All right then," said Liara. "We're getting a little sidetracked." She glared at Kiara, who looked back innocently. "Today you learn about the parts of a dragon. Keep taking notes. Lanth?"  
  
Lanth was nibbling a Lindt chocolate bar. He looked up. "Yes." Liara grinned. "We need you."  
  
Kiara reached under the desk and pulled out a platform about a foot high. Lanth calmly jumped up on it. Liara and Kiara stood to be better seen.  
  
"This is the wing," Liara said, touching one of Lanth's outstretched wings. "This is the wing tip." She touched the point at the tip of the wing. "Were you to ride a life-sized dragon, without a dragon saddle, you would sit here." Lanth lifted both wings and she touched the hollow between his wings. "This is the tail," she added, tapping his tail. "This is the neck and the head, and the eyes and nose and ears, obviously," she said, touching the respective places. "This is the mane. Individually, these are spikes." She touched the ridges along his neck.  
  
Kanth hopped up onto the platform. "These are claws," he said cheerfully, as he and Lanth automatically played rocks, paper, scissors. "They hurt when you are stabbed with them. They're attached to paws, which are attached to legs. That's all you need to know."  
  
Lanth stepped down from the platform, as did Kanth. Ariel stifled a laugh. She was enjoying the class more and more.  
  
"Pack up," Kiara said, feeding Kanth sugar. Liara unwrapped a truffle that was in the desk and gave it to Lanth. "Class is over soon. Read the first chapter of the book. Make a summary. Hand them in. Don't think that we won't grade them or read them carefully. There's four of us, after all. See you tomorrow."  
  
A bell tolled - not the kind in a normal school, but more like those in a church.  
  
Ariel picked up her books and laptop and went to her next class.  
  
-~-*-~-  
  
To reply to Lady Eowyn of Rohan's first review: Ariel was not modeled on you, believe me. I would never, ever model a *good* character on you. To answer the second: I may fix your nitpicky grammar rule if I have a chance. If I don't . *thinks of wildly amusing and inappropriate quote from Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow* Raistlin is NOT . ew. That's just . ew. I am *not* naming it Mopsie.  
  
-Alexa 


	7. Of Mages, Magic and Death Threats

CHAPTER 7  
  
"This class is called 'Magic: Do You Have It?'. You probably believe you have magic. This is obviously wrong. You do not have magic until I say you do. And believe me, you don't." Raistlin stood at the desk, glaring ferociously at the class. "If you are not prepared to work harder than you ever have worked before, get out. Now."  
  
Ariel noticed with surprise that many students were leaving already. She didn't know why so many would give up so soon. However, she did know Raistlin's nasty reputation. The evil smile on Kiara's face, who was next to him, didn't help.  
  
"You probably know this," Raistlin said, "but you're all so stupid I won't assume anything yet about what you do and don't know. This is Kiara, and this is Kanth." He gestured toward Kanth, who was perched on Kiara's shoulder.  
  
"Kiara, that's Lady Kiara to you, will be here every other day. The days she's not here, Liara will be. She is no less evil, she just hides it better."  
  
One of the boys in the class raised his hand. Ariel had seen him before; he had a habit of saying the wrong things in the wrong place at the wrong time.  
  
"Are we allowed to date staff members?" He asked innocently.  
  
Ariel quickly covered her eyes for the subsequent explosion. She was one of the few who did. The boy was standing in front of the teacher's desk, looking completely terrified. Kanth had landed on top of his head. The little dragon was sharpening his claws. It made a very unpleasant sound.  
  
Raistlin sighed and gestured the boy back to his desk. He hurried back and reached for his laptop, only to realize it wasn't there. Kiara was sitting at the desk next to Raistlin, playing with the laptop.  
  
Resigned, the boy took out his notebook.  
  
"I would suggest that those of you who are taking 'Dragons: All You Need To Know (and a lot you don't)' pay particular attention. We have a nasssssty surprise in store for you, oh yes." Raistlin dragged out the word, making his prediction sound even more evil.  
  
"Anyway," Kiara said, "Let's start. Raistlin?" The white-haired mage nodded. "Magic is a supernatural force," he began. Ariel grabbed her laptop and hurriedly began to take notes.  
  
"You cannot learn magic. You cannot go to the best magic teacher in Krynn and say, 'I want to have magic, teach it to me.' You are born with magic. If you do not have it, it makes me that much happier. If you do, it means I have more work to do to make sure you don't misuse it. In other words, don't use it unless I say you can. This is, of course, assuming you have magical abilities in the first place. Since you are all obviously such idiotic, sheep-brained."  
  
Kiara cleared her throat meaningfully, and Raistlin blinked. "Right, moving on. There are four basic areas of magic. The three inside the laws of magic are White magic, following Solinari, Red magic, following Lunitari, and Black magic, following Nuitari. The fourth is renegade magic, outside the boundaries set by these three gods." Raistlin paused for the class to catch up.  
  
"You should not go outside the boundaries of White, Red, or Black magic. Some can, but you can't. It would mess up our entire balance for Krynn. If I find any of you doing renegade magic, I will use you for my multidimensional experiments. Doesn't that sound fun, Kiara?"  
  
"Oh, absolutely," Kiara said, filing her nails with a knife that she had apparently pulled out of her sleeve. Ariel grinned. Yesterday, out of curiosity, she had visited the general store near the bookstore. She had seen a display of very pretty knives - small ones - that could be slipped into a boot. The weather was curiously cold in Krynn - Ariel guessed it was winter - so she had worn a long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and her boots and new boot knife. The person with the desk on one side of her looked at Ariel, unnerved. In an impossible class with an evil teacher making death threats, one does not usually smile cheerfully.  
  
"Magic involves many components," Kiara said, "Such as herbs. Occasionally we need blood. Use your own blood, if you need it for a spell. If you ever use someone else's, you will become the punching dummy in the evil platypi's training gym."  
  
Ariel winced.  
  
"The class will end soon," said Raistlin. "Read the first textbook. Take notes."  
  
A brave girl raised her hand. "Um, didn't you mean the first chapter?" she asked tremulously.  
  
"No." He glared. "Goodbye now."  
  
The bell rang. The students filed out of the room, and Ariel went back to her dorm to start her reading.  
  
^-^--^-^  
  
To answer The Golden Dragon: QUIET! To answer Shelly, I will use some of the things you suggested. Unfortunately, I already signed up Ariel for all her courses this semester. I will use them next semester though. Great ideas, thank you!!!! 


	8. Of Homework, Bets and Embarrassing Lectu...

CHAPTER 8  
  
"I," Lily said miserably, "am going to die."  
  
Listening to Lily's tale of woe, Ariel grinned. Lily had been elated when she found out that 'Defeating the Dark' was, indeed, taught by Tanis. Her delight had worn off, however, when she discovered she was supposed to read four chapters and write a 3-page summary of each one. "How could he do that to me?" Lily moaned.  
  
"Hey, at least he didn't assign you an entire book," Ariel retorted. She was almost through the 600-page magic textbook. It was the first volume. The other thirty-nine were on the floor. Her notes were 75 pages long. She had been working for hours, and had only managed to get as far as she was because of her skills in rapid touch-typing and her fast skimming of books. Ariel had a feeling that her hands would be extremely stiff and painful the next day.  
  
"How was that fighting class?" Lily turned a page in her textbook and typed something into her own laptop, which was a disgustingly bright pink.  
  
"Canceled," Ariel said absently, starting the last chapter (finally) of the magic textbook and entering her 77th page of notes. "It was raining, remember. And the evil platypi were using the gym."  
  
Lily grinned. "Less homework for you, though," she pointed out.  
  
"Good point."  
  
"Speaking of platypi, did you notice that they took our dog?"  
  
"No! What did they do to him?" Ariel cried in alarm.  
  
"They say he has true evil potential. Revven conveyed their message. They took him to their Evil Platypi Training Ground. To make him more 'cute', they named him 'Mopsie', apparently. They say they will use his cuteness to get close to important people so he can eat them."  
  
"Pleasant."  
  
"Yeah, I know."  
  
The girls worked in comfortable silence for a while. About ten minutes later, Ariel closed the magic textbook after three hours of reading. She started on the assignment for the dragon class, which only took about half an hour.  
  
"Did you see the printers?" Ariel asked. "They're supposed to be super-fast, and they never run out of paper or ink. Revven told me."  
  
"Yeah, they're really cool!" Lily said, dropping a textbook on the floor and picking up another. "They really do give an insane amount of homework, don't they? Did you finish that textbook?"  
  
"Yeah, at last. I'm working on the dragon notes."  
  
"Good luck. Dragons?"  
  
"Yeah, they're great!"  
  
"I'll take your word for it. Hmm. The cooking class seems easy . only a chapter, imagine."  
  
Ariel finished a list of dragon parts in her notes before commenting. "There's only a chapter in the dragon class, too."  
  
"I know. Let's see.I need to read the last chapter for."  
  
Ariel reached the last page of her dragon textbook, finishing the notes. She then played Dune 2000 for a few hours until dinner. Looking through her schedule after she ate, she discovered that tomorrow was a "2" day, in which she had three classes; 'Why The Dragonlance Characters Are Not Your Lust Objects', 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series', and 'The Fighters of Dragonlance: How They Did It'. She readied her textbooks and laptop, hoping that in getting ready in the evening, she would be able to sleep later in the morning.  
  
"G'night, Lily," Ariel said sleepily as she climbed into bed.  
  
"Good night, Ariel."  
  
Ariel woke the next morning, extremely bleary. Revven was bouncing impatiently up and down on her stomach. The moment he opened her eyes, he moved on to Lily ("Why me first?" Ariel mumbled). Once finished, he zipped out the door, calling for all to hear, "WAKE UP!"  
  
Managing to stumble to the bathroom, Ariel put in her contacts and brushed her teeth. Slightly more awake after splashing cold water all over her face, she got dressed in a shirt and jeans (again) and did her hair in a neat ponytail. Glancing at her watch, Ariel saw she had fifteen minutes until breakfast. She used the time to put on sneakers and then sat down to draw something. She was halfway through a dragon claw when Revven sounded the call to breakfast. Finally fully awake, Ariel and Lily joined the sleepy column of students moving toward the cafeteria.  
  
After getting a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and fruit - she felt she needed the sugar - Ariel sat down at her table, where Kiara and Liara were already arguing. Digging into her watermelon, Ariel listened.  
  
"You redid your pitcher!" Liara exclaimed happily as Kiara sat down with a black pitcher on her tray. Ariel gulped, seeing Kiara's new label on the pitcher. Kiara gave Liara a death glare and twisted the pitcher around so she could see the label. It said "PROPERTY OF KIARA ONLY" above a large picture of skull and crossbones.  
  
That day Liara had a purple and blue tye-dye pitcher, with "Liara" written on it in simple silver print. Kanth fluttered down, proudly bearing his own mini-pitcher. It was painted gold and labeled in black, "PROPERTY OF KANTH ONLY". Under it was a gruesome picture of a dragon eating a screaming knight.  
  
"Kanth," Liara said reproachfully. Lanth also flew down, bearing an almost exact replica of Kanth's pitcher. The difference was, Lanth's was silver and had "LANTH" written on it in blue. Under it was a picture of a blue rose.  
  
Kanth lifted the sugar shaker at the table. It had been placed there exclusively for the use of Kiara and Kanth, in the hope that there would be some sugar left for the students. The gold dragon unscrewed the top and dumped the entire thing into his small pitcher. "Good for you, Kanth," Kiara said approvingly through a chocolate chip flapjack. (A flapjack is an enormous pancake.)  
  
Finishing her fruit, Ariel started on her pancakes. "You see, Liara?" Kiara said triumphantly. "I won."  
  
"What?" Liara said, surprised.  
  
"I said that I would influence Ariel's breakfast so she'd eat sugar before you would do it so she could eat fruit. I won, see?"  
  
Ariel stared.  
  
"Well," Liara said slyly, "I guess that's true. But she was eating an equal amount of fruit salad before she ate the pancakes."  
  
Kiara glared. "But I bet it weighed less."  
  
"But she ate it first, which implies that she liked it better."  
  
Kiara sighed. "Neither one of us won, okay? It's too early in the morning to argue."  
  
Smiling, Liara nodded. "Of course. You brought it up, of course, but I will overlook it if you cover what we were going to do to the loser of our bet."  
  
"That's not fair!" Kiara said accusingly.  
  
Liara winked at Ariel. "You see, our bet was the winner got ten steel coins. The loser had to teach an embarrassing lesson to you."  
  
Ariel looked up, curious. "What?"  
  
"Ahh, maybe I should surprise you."  
  
"Liara, you wouldn't really do that, would you?"  
  
"Oh, all right."  
  
"So what is it?"  
  
Liara grinned evilly as she drank more hot chocolate. "Dragon mating and reproducing habits."  
  
Kiara smiled with an evil glint in her eyes. "I'm sure your class will appreciate it, aren't you, Ariel?"  
  
Ariel collapsed into laughter.  
  
A/N: Those of you who have reviewed this . THANK YOU!!! To answer AngelDragonStar's question (was that a question?), the textbooks are probably 400pages. 


	9. Of Swordfighting, Overtalkative Kender a...

(The next morning)  
  
"I am Sturm Brightblade." Sturm's voice, Ariel could tell, was the kind that could put someone to sleep very easily. "Since none of you know how to fight with a sword, I will begin from the basics."  
  
"But I know how to fight with a sword," a snobbish girl Ariel had noted before said.  
  
"What is your name?" Sturm inquired calmly.  
  
"Valiarana Moonglow," she answered. Ariel grinned - the girl had made the name up. Her real name was Gertrude.  
  
Sturm looked at her with a completely straight face. "Ah, you are . Gertrude."  
  
She turned bright red. "That's not my name!" she insisted.  
  
"Of course," Sturm agreed diplomatically. "My chart must be wrong. I will correct it as soon as possible."  
  
Sturm turned to the rest of the class. "All right then. There will be no grades throughout this semester. You begin with 100 points. Anything you do wrong will be deducted from your total score. Things you are graded on include adaptation, concentration, strength, agility, and" - he glared at Valiarana/Gertrude - "class behavior."  
  
"But some of us aren't naturally strong or flexible," commented a beautiful girl from the back. She was rather vain, Ariel knew.  
  
"Too bad for you," Sturm answered. "Now, I know some of you said you could fight with a sword in the questions you filled out earlier. Those of you who did, you will be fighting me today. That includes . Kurt Brownhead, Jim Daven, Katie Haverfield, Sam Ingot, Diane Knoff, and Ger - I mean, Valiarana Moonglow."  
  
His dragon snorted. Ariel hadn't noticed it before, although now that she saw it, she realized it was hard to miss. The dragon was bright blue in color and flapped around lazily. (The students were in the gym, as the platypi had regretfully surrendered it to the school. IT looked very much like a school gym on Earth, but there were no lines on the floor. It was just wood. There were no basketball hoops, or nets for climbing, or . anything. There was just Sturm and his class, who were seated on the ground. Sturm was standing.)  
  
Valiarana raised her hand. "That's mean," she said sulkily. "We shouldn't fight you. We should fight someone more at our level, an . amateur."  
  
"Are you saying you are an amateur?" Sturm said mildly. (Ariel admired his tactics. He was very good at embarrassing people he didn't like.) "Of course, we have some raw trainees who have never fought before, but I thought you were on a higher level."  
  
The haughty girl fell right into his trap. "I am!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Good," he said. "Now, swords."  
  
His dragon flew out through the door and came back in almost instantly. The blue dragon was using his magic to push a large wooden case on wheels through the doors and up to Sturm. Once it got there, the dragon landed on the floor beside the knight.  
  
"Thank you, Azure," Sturm said. He pulled open the case and showed the students a rack with swords hanging from it of varying sizes. He pulled the smallest and the largest off for the practice. Ariel silently commented on the swords, which were wood and obviously weighted with something - lead, Ariel guessed.  
  
Sturm fought each student and shamed them considerably, defeating them almost instantly. As he knew he could beat them, Sturm seemed to have set a kind of a standard for himself: "kill" the student in fewer than five strokes of a sword.  
  
The class ended as he "killed" Valiarana. Dismissing them, he told them to read the first chapter of the book and take notes - Ariel was used to the assignment. She went to her next class quickly, not wanting to be late for "Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series". When she got there, Ariel was shocked.  
  
Tasslehoff Burrfoot stood at the front of the classroom.  
  
Right next to Ladonna.  
  
Ariel sat in a desk at the front and stared. Tas had a shiny brown dragon, who was buzzing among the students, stealing small objects, and in general creating havoc. Ladonna's was a serene grey, and perched on her shoulder. Dragon and sorceress appraised the students.  
  
The bell rang. (Well, it wasn't like a normal school bell. It didn't exactly ring, it just . belled.)  
  
"Your class starts now," Ladonna said clearly. "That means quiet."  
  
There was instant silence.  
  
"Now," she said, "This is the class you probably call 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series.' Tasslehoff Burrfoot and I will explain this to you. Tasslehoff, I believe you wished to start?..."  
  
"Hi, I'm Tasslehoff Burrfoot," Tas said. Ladonna looked at the clock and murmured something to her dragon, who nodded.  
  
"You can call me Tas." Tas grinned and bounced up and down. This was extremely amusing, as he was only about four feet tall. "We're teaching you about Dragonlance. See, we're not just part of a normal fantasy series. One very important reason is, you see, Dragonlance has kender. We're very important, did you know? There was that time when I stole the gem we needed, or when I got killed by Chaos, and I came back . that was fun, wasn't it, Ladonna? Anyway, there are all sorts of cool things in Dragonlance that are not in other things, like . draconians. Except they aren't really cool. They're just . not nice. But there are also cool people, or elves, except they are people. And a lot of stories have elves, but we have special elves. Like Dalamar, who totally freaked me out. He really did want to kill me, Ladonna, remember? But anyway, you don't have towers with evil people in them that sink through cities into the realms of the dead in your normal fantasy series, do you? I didn't think so. But then, you see, it's because."  
  
"Time's up, kender," Ladonna said firmly as her dragon nudged her. Disappointed, Tasslehoff fell silent.  
  
"As Tasslehoff was attempting to explain," Ladonna said, "We will be teaching you about the unique aspects of the Dragonlance saga. This will not be an easy class, so those of you who are not prepared to work very hard should leave right now." Ladonna glared icily at a few people (Ariel was amused to see Valiarana Moonglow among the victims of Ladonna's evil stare).  
  
Ladonna continued, "I would also like to point out that you need to be actually interested in Dragonlance for this class. Those of you who only like Dragonlance because it has fighting, or elves, or magic, should get out of here, because I dislike people with that kind of closed mind immensely." Ladonna pointed at Katie, an ordinary-looking girl who lived next to Ariel and Lily. She was very nice, but also extremely quiet. "Why do you like Dragonlance." Ladonna checked her list of names. ".Katie Anderson?"  
  
Katie turned a little red and mumbled, "I like . fantasy stuff, and they are good books, I guess."  
  
The Black Robe nodded. "That is a perfectly acceptable reason." Ladonna looked at her list. "Hmm, how about.Ariel Nellen. Why do you like Dragonlance?"  
  
Ariel groaned inwardly. Better get it over with, she thought. "I like it because, um, I like the way it's written, and the characters and the plot and stuff."  
  
"Yes, very good, that's right," Ladonna said. "Since assigning things from textbooks seems to be the fashion lately, you can do, let's say three chapters and write an essay on what is in the chapters. Three pages per chapter. Dismissed," she added as the bell tolled.  
  
Ariel picked up her books with a sigh and went to her third, and last, class of the day.  
  
^_^ To answer AngelDragonStar: a Mary Sue is when an author takes a story plot and manipulates it so that the author's favorite character falls in love with the author in the fic. They are very annoying. R&R!!!! 


	10. Of Dragons, Eggs and Responsibility

CHAPTER 10  
  
"Today we have a rather unusual situation," Kiara began. She was standing at the front of the cafeteria, speaking to the bleary students. Liara was, as always, right beside her. Ariel sat at her normal table.  
  
"We intended to do normal courses today. However, the Evil Platypi have decided that they want to teach a course to you. They also stated that, should we refuse to let them torture you - I mean teach you, of course - they will stop guarding the dragon's eggs."  
  
Dragon's eggs?!? Ariel thought.  
  
"Since that would really be bad, we decided to give them a class for today. Some of you will have your normal morning classes - the others will have the normal afternoon classes." She then read off the names of half the students, who would go first. Ariel was having the "platypi student torture session" in the afternoon, which meant that she would have Liara and Kiara (the NOT-twins) give the reproduction lecture that morning.  
  
Finishing breakfast without any further incidents, Ariel made her way back to the dorm, where she had a brief argument with Lily over Mopsie. Lily wanted him back. However, Ariel would just as soon give him to the platypi. A dog pretending to be a platypus would be extremely amusing.  
  
Arriving at the classroom, Ariel looked around, taking in her surroundings for the first time. The room was polished wood; it was spacious, and the desks were also wood. At the front, there was a blackboard, and in front of it was a plain wooden desk and two chairs.  
  
Kiara cleared her throat meaningfully. The classroom fell silent. "Right, now we have our lecture. Here, we have dragons." she pointed to Lanth and Kanth, who were (as usual) sitting on the desk ".and we have an egg."  
  
Liara reached under the desk and pulled out an oblong egg. It was perhaps seven inches long and four inches wide. However, Ariel did not notice its size, but rather looked at the tye-dye multicolored patterns on it.  
  
Liara continued the lecture. "This is not a normal egg, but rather a very rare egg. We were going to show you a normal one, but the platypi wouldn't let us take one out of the vault, and they would only let us use this. It is very close to hatching and I am worried that it may."  
  
There was a loud cracking sound. All eyes fixed on the egg. The egg began to shudder and rock back and forth. Kanth and Lanth looked at it anxiously. The cracks widened, and the shell broke into pieces. From the shattered egg, there arose a tiny yet perfect dragon in the same bright colors as the shell.  
  
".hatch," Liara finished.  
  
Ariel stared at the tiny dragon, perhaps seven inches long. Apart from its beautiful and multicolored scales, she also noticed that it had . bright silver eyes.  
  
"Lanth?" Liara said in astonishment.  
  
The little dragon struggled to the edge of the desk, with Lanth close to one side. Launching clumsily in the air, closely followed by Lanth, who was chattering to the hatchling in a language that Ariel didn't know.  
  
The hatchling flew a few cautious circles, then flew over the students, who watched, spellbound. The hatchling flew in front of Ariel . and landed on her desk.  
  
"Oh, God," Kiara said. "I think he likes you. We were going to give those of you who are in the magic class dragons to care for anyway.but I think you'd better take him now, Ariel."  
  
"Lanth," Liara said.  
  
"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Lanth said in English. "How forgetful of me. Oh, well, that's the bell now."  
  
Sure enough, the bell tolled. The students filed out of the room.  
  
"Ariel," Liara and Kiara said in unison, "stay."  
  
Ariel went up to the two elves with the dracling on her wrist. She absently stroked its head.  
  
"You need to feed him milk," Liara instructed, still sounding stunned. "There is some in the cafeteria - just feed it to him there, that should tide him over until dinner. The platypi class isn't until one this afternoon; he will have to go with you, I suppose."  
  
"Keep him warm," Kiara continued. "He should be with you at all times, although you can leave him alone for up to an hour if you need to. He will want to sleep in a bed, so we'll send one to your room. It should go right next to your bed. Oh, and if you sleep with any stuffed animals, you should get rid of them. He won't like them. He will always stay on your wrist, and they pick up English within a week or so. Talk to him, though, and name him. He'll just go with you everywhere."  
  
"Um," Ariel said.  
  
"I know it's hard," Liara said, "But you kind of have to, now. He won't take to anyone else."  
  
"Great," Ariel muttered.  
  
Kiara laughed.  
  
"Take him to the cafeteria now," Kiara said.  
  
"Okay. Thank you!" Ariel said, turning to leave.  
  
"No problem," Liara said.  
  
Ariel left the classroom with her dragon firmly perched on her right wrist.  
  
~-~^_^~-~  
  
Thanks for all reviews! If you have any questions/comments, you can review or IM me at EarthEnder (I have AIM). Thank you . HERE COME THE PLATYPI! -Alexa 


	11. Of Miss Kara, Kender and Yclemprt

CHAPTER 11  
  
Ariel filed into another classroom. Lily was next to her, chattering about Ariel's dragon, Tanis, the platypi, Tanis, the food, Tanis, her homework, Tanis.  
  
When Ariel had arrived back in her dormitory that morning, Revven had flown in with yet another set of instructions for the dracling. The milk that it was fed, apparently, had to be mixed first with cream and then with honey, to make it thicker and sweeter. Ariel could only feed a certain amount to the hatchling at a time, and only at meals, and the cream and honey had to be in proportion to the milk. Then there was the business of the bed, which she had to move the forty magic textbooks to make room for. It was round and padded, and there were rolled-up blankets on one side. Ariel was supposed to put him into the bed every night, and make sure he was a comfortable temperature. She was also to teach the dracling to use the laptop. The hatchling had to interact with other dragons, also, so for an hour or two in the evenings she went out into the Courtyard with an entry pass and sat and did homework, while the dracling played with the other dragons. The responsibilities were endless.  
  
However, Ariel had a more immediate problem at that time. A thing stood at the front of the classroom. It looked like a platypus, except it was approximately five feet tall, and its bill was shorter than it should have been. There was an evil glint in its eyes, and it was gnawing on a bone, despite the foods of choice for a normal platypus. Behind the platypus stood a line of other platypi. Ariel noticed that Mopsie sat to the right of the platypus in front.  
  
Someone giggled behind Ariel. The platypus whipped around and pointed at the person who had laughed - Valiarana Moonglow. "Your name," the platypus demanded in a squeaky, scratchy voice as two other platypi dragged her in front of the first platypus.  
  
"Valiarana Moonglow," she said bravely. The platypus reached into a desk drawer and pulled out . spectacles. It jammed the glasses on its nose and peered at Valiarana. "Should you not have come with the previous class, then?"  
  
"I, um," she faltered. A cheerful and all too familiar voice piped up from the back of the crowd. "She forgot to come," Tasslehoff Burrfoot said with a big grin. "Well, she didn't forget, exactly," he amended. "She just, sort of ignored it, because she was spying on Tanis, but he found her and made her come."  
  
Tasslehoff Burffoot's recollection of events abruptly broke off as the kender began to talk about Ariel's dracling. The platypus motioned for all the students to sit. Juggling pens, pencils, books, notebook, laptop, and dracling with difficulty, Ariel sat down near the front. She flicked up the top of the computer, and turned it on, typing in her username and password - both related to Dragonlance, of course - and opened up a document, getting ready to type notes.  
  
"I am Yclemprt," the platypus in front rumbled. "You will be taking a lot of notes in this class, so . those of you who don't have laptops are going to have some problems . which is not my fault, so I don't care! Those of you who do have laptops, I will want a printed version of your single- spaced, size-twelve notes that are at least twenty pages long by tomorrow. Those of you who don't have computers, take your notes and hook up to the ones in the library. Since I am so unspeakably nice, I will make it only eighteen pages for the minimum. Still single-spaced and size-twelve - so don't think you can get away with that."  
  
Ariel had wondered why she had seen so many frenzied students furiously typing at the library computers earlier that day. She was, however, very glad she had brought a laptop. Lily, who had in the desk next to Ariel, was using her pink laptop. The dracling curled up on Ariel's desk and watched Yclemprt intently.  
  
The other platypi behind Yclemprt left. Yclemprt began to speak again. "Some of you may have noticed that we are not included in most Dragonlance stories. This is only because of the authors' attempts to be concise. We are not relevant to the plot, which is the relevance of our existence."  
  
Every student was typing or writing furiously, except for a few who sat smugly in their chairs. Apparently they had made arrangements to use the notes of other students.  
  
"By the way," Yclemprt interrupted himself, "You cannot use someone else's notes. The library and dormitory dragons will tell me if you do . and then I will make up a nasssssty punishment for you, oh yes." Yclemprt's dark eyes momentarily glowed red. The dracling squeaked in alarm.  
  
There was a flurry of notebooks and pens and more than a few muttered comments of "that's not fair!"  
  
"Anyway, the platypi were invented by a great person. She is an elf, but we all know that she is really a platypus at heart. We even gave her an award for it, as I recall. We were created with the help of this person's sister, who is not her twin."  
  
Ariel began to have some suspicious about the identity of the mysterious inventors, but chose not to mention them.  
  
".and I hope you shall all pay them the highest respect. If you don't, they do have a contingent of the Platy-Elite guards guarding them, so one of us will know."  
  
Yclemprt paused momentarily to let the note-taking students catch up.  
  
"To make your note-taking even harder," Yclemprt said with an evil grin (the dracling hissed), "I will now give you some dates . which you will later translate into ROMAN NUMERALS!"  
  
The terrified dracling squirmed into the triangular space Ariel's elbow was making.  
  
Yclemprt then proceeded to reel of a list of random dates that had special significance to the platypi - such as "Earth Year 1995, Agnargle Crmpeagen first joins Dragonlance Academy and begins laying evil plans," or "Earth Year 1984, Marvgsel Krankke develops first poisonous cream cheese".  
  
After Yclemprt had related to them the tales of Agnargle, Marvgsel, and way too many others, he finally stopped and switched topics.  
  
"There are many things that one must go through to become an evil platypi. For instance, take Mopsie here."  
  
Mopsie was brought forward by a platypus, and a chorus of "awwww" went through the students. The dracling, perched on Ariel's arm by then, tilted its head quizzically.  
  
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yclemprt laughed - although it was a very weird laugh, Ariel thought. "You may THINK he is cute, but he is in fact . a KILLING MACHINE! HAHAHAHAHA! Ahem," he added, looking faintly embarrassed.  
  
The dracling snorted a little puff of smoke and then jumped into Ariel's lap. Ariel stroked its head gently.  
  
"Anyway, write me an essay on all this. If you leave something out . I will do something BAD to you. Here comes the bell, now."  
  
The bell tolled.  
  
As Ariel left the classroom, a familiar copper dragon flew in front of her. He then landed on her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, Ariel rearranged what she was carrying to accommodate laptop, school supplies, books, dracling, and dragon. When she got back to her dormitory (Lily opened the door) Ariel dropped everything she was carrying on the bed and sat down.  
  
"Miss Kara, she's wanting to see you now," the dragon said. "Stand up, and we'll go."  
  
Ariel stood and blinked once. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the same stone hallway. "Come," the dragon said, and flew into a door. Ariel winced at the thud that he made upon contact. Miss Kara opened the door and looked at Ariel, who gulped. She was very tall, Ariel noticed.  
  
Miss Kara bent, picked up the unconscious copper dragon, and motioned Ariel inside the office. Ariel looked around as she entered. Nothing had changed: the room still held the two chairs, the single lamp, the desk, and the papers.  
  
"I almost never close the door, you see," Miss Kara said with a slight smile. "I believe he expected it to be open."  
  
Ariel grinned.  
  
"It was cold outside," Miss Kara explained. Then she motioned to the other chair. "Please sit."  
  
Ariel sat.  
  
"Doubtlessly, you have been told - many times over - what your responsibilities with this dragon are." She touched the little dracling gently. "My comment, however, is slightly different. Lanth has come to me, with a request for him. It seems that his mother was named Zala, or something like that, so Lanth wants him to be named . Zanth."  
  
Ariel stared.  
  
"Yes," Miss Kara sighed, "I know. It's a family tradition, I think. By the way," she added, "I'm a professor on dragons here, as well as an administrator. If you have questions, the best thing is to come to me or to Liara and Kiara - we're the dragon experts for the school. If you need Liara or Kiara, they're easy enough to find, and if you need me, just say 'Cavri', that's my dragon, and he'll come."  
  
Ariel nodded.  
  
"Ah, one more thing," Miss Kara continued. "The Master says to warn you. You've been doing magic, so you should know not to use it, ever, outside of class, and the same goes for Zanth here . anyway, thank you for taking care of him." Miss Kara looked at her watch. "It's nearly five o' clock, you should be going out to the Courtyard."  
  
"Thank you, Miss Kara," Ariel said as she stood to leave.  
  
"You're welcome, dear. Have a nice evening!"  
  
Ariel was going to say "same to you", but she didn't get the chance. The stone walls around her blurred, and she vanished.  
  
*****~^-^-^~*****  
  
I just realized that, throughout this fic, whenever I mean to have 3 dots (dot, dot, dot) it looks like one dot. Please know when a phrase says something like "(word) . (word)" the . is meant to be THREE dots.  
  
Do not ask why I am obsessing over dots.  
  
Reviewers so far: AngelDragonStar, Shade Burrfoot, Fenris, Shelly, Lyndraco, sarra, chickens, Lady Eowyn of Rohan and The Golden Dragon.  
  
THANK YOU!! -Alexa 


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